This article is from page 3 of the 2007-11-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
THE Government is set to miss its own deadline in opening the first phase of the Western Rail Corridor between Ennis and Galway.
That is the view of Fine Gael’s Pat Breen who told the Dail that the link is unlikely to be opened before 2009 and not 2008 as originally envis- aged.
Deputy Breen said that when the new rail link is open, “There will be a railway network linking Limerick, Ennis and Galway, three major ur- ban areas and two large cities. This will facilitate many people, not only
morning commuters but third-level students in both cities.”
The Fine Gael deputy, however, was critical of the Government’s pro- vision of transport infrastructure in jabber) BB uote he
He said, “Unfortunately, this Gov- SIM ONDOLS)OLMN OT-omrsloyeDOLO CO) elerOmncseelO)IT-D INO lor velopment. Very little of the money set aside for Transport 21 will go towards rural Ireland, somewhere around one per cent or two per cent of its budget or €30 million.”
Deputy Breen said, “I commute weekly between Clare and Dublin and one would expect to find a dual carriageway at least from Limerick to
Dublin by now. The National Roads Authority, NRA, is widening the road at the Nenagh bypass to make it a dual carriageway. If this had been a few years ago when the Nenagh by- pass was opened taxpayers’ money would have been saved.
“Poor roads will not encourage people to live in rural areas, they will instead move to urban areas. That is part of the problem we face in County Clare. There is a dual car- riageway from Barefield to Limerick but the Ennis bypass which should have opened in 2004 is not yet com- pletely open.
“T welcome that it is partly open and
has eased gridlock in the town. The dual carriageway was opened last January yet two critical link roads, have not been opened at Clareabbey in Clarecastle and on the Tulla road. A link road should have been built on the Tulla road but it isn’t part of the
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“We should have a broad vision when building roads and look to the future. The transport sector is the fastest growing contributor to our national rate of greenhouse gas emis- sions.
“A few years ago there was only one car per house, now most house- holds have two or three cars. Our
infrastructure has unfortunately not kept pace with that development. We all know how slow travel is now be- tween towns. A few years ago I could travel in ten minutes from my house to Ennis, now it takes 15 to 20 min- utes because of the gridlock.
“If we are to take cars off the road it is important to improve public trans- port. According to the 2002 census 62 per cent of people use the car to get to work compared with 45 per cent in 1986.
“The number of people driving their cars to work has increased by 50 per cent in that period. This is a worrying trend.”